During his attendance speech at the ‘Symi Symposium’ organized by the Greek former PM, George Papandreou in Athens, PM Rama spoke on the barriers that are being put up for the countries of the Western Balkans, during their process of integration into the EU.
Albania’s PM spoke regarding his disappointment following EU’s decision to not hold up to its promise on opening up negotiations for Albania and North Macedonia, touching on Bulgaria’s veto, while putting an emphasis on what he called a set of ‘absurd expectations coming from several EU member states’.
“The European Commission said that they are ready to begin discussions on accession, and in my opinion, when the EC says it, it is the most appropriate organism that actually can. Who else in Athens, Paris or The Hague has a team that works full-time, to gather data regarding whether or not you fulfilled the conditions? During the first wedding, the bride didn’t show up, in the second wedding the bride again didn’t show up, well there won’t be preparations for a third wedding, go to hell. There are also the odd conditions of, ‘next spring’ and when spring becomes fall, the entire country feels like they have been cheated on by who knows who,” said Rama.
In the face of the hardships that are being felt during the integration process, the Albanian PM said that the best way for countries in the region, is the creation of a joint market. He also added that he sees great opportunity in the 6 states that are part of the Western Balkans, so that they can create a zone that works according to the same rules that are applied by EU member states.
Rama also spoke on the difficulties faced in the concretization of the idea that has been deemed as the ‘mini Schengen’, where initially there were disagreements by the Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, whereas now both Kosovo and Bosnia Hercegovina refuse to become part of it.
Rama ended his word by saying that several EU member states are applying a “crazy double standard”. He mentioned the Netherlands and France, who have raised their expectations regarding Albania’s integration into the EU.
Rama called the EU an “old empire” adding that as history shows us, the countries of the Western Balkans will be the last to “abandon” it, because this is what happened in the case of the Ottoman Empire and the Soviet Union.
“We will be the last to leave the EU. Because we are always the last to leave old empires. There’s this saying about the euro-optimist and the euro-pessimist; The euro-optimist says that ‘Turkey will enter the EU, when Albania holds the EU Presidency. The euro-pessimist says that Albania will enter the EU, when Turkey holds the EU Presidency,” concluded Rama.
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